Shen Milsom & Wilke (SM&W)’s Mark Bennett Brown got his start in the AV industry setting up (very loud) sound systems for his various bands in his hometown in Central Pennsylvania. He attended James Madison University, graduating Cum Laude in Telecommunications, and was recruited by CMS as a design consultant in 2001. At that point, he relocated to Long Island.
In his time working in the corporate AV industry, he has spent over 16 years on the end-user side, as well as time in engineering and sales. For the past three years, he has worked for Shen Milsom & Wilke and currently holds the title of principal. He lives in Pound Ridge, N.Y. with his wife, Danielle, and two children, Clyde and Gia. He is currently fighting liver cancer and is thankful for his co-workers, friends and family for their support.
A Conversation with Mark Bennett Brown of Shen Milsom & Wilke
In this interview, Brown recalls fond memories of weekly AV meetings, being one of the first 50 individuals to receive a CTS-D certification and shutting down Times Square for a project.
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Commercial Integrator: What motivated you to join the commercial AV industry?
Mark Bennett Brown: Unemployment! I had been working at an MI store in Central Pennsylvania and maintained a healthy list of contractors to whom we sold “boxes.” When it was time to move on, a good friend (Mike Marr, now with Community) recommended I speak with one of these local contractors. I started from the ground up — first as an estimator, then fabricating racks and performing service calls. Eventually I was designing systems and I realized I was in over my head! I quickly learned there was always more to learn, and you do not have to be the smartest guy in the room.
Commercial Integrator: What has kept you motivated and engaged in the decades that followed?
Mark Bennett Brown: The next project. In the beginning of my career, what inspired me was looking at bid packages from companies like Shen Milsom & Wilke and WJHW, which made me think to myself, “I can do this — and I can do it better.” I always wanted to do something bigger and better.
Now that I run my own projects, as well as AV programs for global companies, I inevitably take some learned process, or some method of improvement, and I apply to the next project.
Each new project is like a blank slate where there are no budget challenges, no site issues, no schedule constraints. This is a moment in time, where you have the opportunity to deliver the AV system on time and on budget. Then, the fun begins.
Commercial Integrator: Reflect on your role as both a mentee early in your career and as a mentor later in your career. Who helped shape the trajectory of your professional life? How have you tried to help shape others’ careers?
Mark Bennett Brown: Are we naming names? I have learned from so, so many. Sometimes, I learned what to do; sometimes, I learned what not to do — or, at least, what may work for one person may not work for me. Chris Maione brought me into the consultant’s world back in 2001 and, between him and Andrew Costello, I learned a lot about what to do/not do. Chris Frohne taught me that your vendor works best as an ally, which previously had been a foreign concept to me. Also, Mark Peterson — he was my client, eventually peer and then my boss. I have a feeling many do not understand the many facets of his personality and approach to AV. He is brilliant!
As far as mentorship goes, SM&W has a robust internal Mentoring Program, as well as weekly Training & Education Program. When I was asked to present, I realized how long I had been doing commercial AV and that I have a lot to share.
I would like to help others avoid making the same mistakes I did. I joke that I have scars on my arms that remind me what to not do ever again. Although one or two of those are from soldering, which I still enjoy.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the most memorable story/anecdote of your career in commercial AV?
Mark Bennett Brown: I have fond memories of weekly AV meetings at the Palm on 51st Street. A few of us worked at a large financial company across the street, and once a week we would invite our friends, vendors, designers, manufacturers — you name it. It became an “Algonquin Round Table” of sorts, as individuals who were competitors would engage in technical discussions and solutions to AV problems. These seemed to end abruptly as my wife pulled the car up to 8th Avenue yelling for me to get in, which I would do rapidly after finishing my scotch. Some of those people are no longer with us, and I miss them dearly.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
Mark Bennett Brown: We shut down Times Square! We had a project for a 200-plus seat corporate auditorium on a trading floor, and the display was an exceptionally large rear projection screen. This was way before indoor DVLED was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. The installation required the Northern façade of Morgan Stanley’s 4th floor to be opened. The slab-to-slab height allowed us to ample vertical height, but we still had to bring the crate in sideways. The crane parked on 48th Street near the end of the day, and our permit began around 7 p.m. It took some time to get the screen near the rough opening, and when they did the chain hoist failed. It was pretty impressive watching the twelve or so glaziers lift the massive display up on sawhorses six inches at a time, until it was set in place. We finished around 1 AM, and I think we went to the Palm, afterwards.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your biggest professional regret to date?
Mark Bennett Brown: Not keeping up with my AVIXA certifications. I was one of the first 50 CTS-Ds back in 2002, but, while working as an end user (as I have for nearly 16 years of my career), you are made to feel these professional credentials — or even trade shows — are not especially important.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the best advice or pearl of wisdom you either received during your career or came to realize on your own?
Mark Bennett Brown: Do not attend a meeting without a published agenda. In the best-case scenario, you are going to waste your time in a meeting that could have been an email. If you are on the vendor side, you are not giving your clients or invitees the respect they deserve unless you provide them with an agenda that explains to them why you are asking for their valuable time. As an attendee, in the worst-case scenario, you may find yourself being ambushed about some frivolous detail of an AV design or installation.
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